The original Victorian is a pretty early Victorian about 1860 it wasn't spectacular
in terms of didn't have huge ceiling heights or really intricate lace work,
but the thing that struck me about it most was, I never saw it as just one house on its own,
it's one of five, and across the front of the property,
you'll see Charlemont Terrace which is the name of the five row houses of terraces.
So one of the reasons for the approach to the new parts of the building that you see from the street
and that they're lower and they're black and they're lighter looking is to make it distinct
or make it appear like an almost a shadow line so you can you isolate this terrace in its street.
This property is on the land of the wurundjeri people of the kulin nation. My name's Andrew
Child this is my house, I'm an architect and I'm the designer of Fitzroy Laneway House.
We're in Fitzroy it's next to and just Northeast of the city of Melbourne.
It's a vibrant area there's a lot of people especially during the morning and afternoon
going to and from work they move through the city, there's a lot of Victorian housing stock,
a lot of old buildings and mixed with new interesting little pieces of architecture.
The main part of the brief was to house my family, we're also looking for somewhere that
could accommodate us well into the future, so we had flexibility in the way we might want to live.
We were after something that was quite informal and felt relaxed, we wanted
to have fun here and we were also interested in Fitzroy so we looked
around the suburb for ideas that might help us get started on the project.
The site was quite unique not only because it's got two streets a front and the back
but also because it's got this strip of land running down the southern boundary beside the
existing house which we think might have been one of these old privately created Laneways.
Upstairs we have what's essentially a parents retreat with a master bedroom
and a little study space and a little hidden ensuite. There's lots of exposed brick work
and then we have the back building, upstairs is currently used as my office and together
with the bathroom this could become a studio apartment for my son when he gets older or
a completely separate tendency because it can be accessed separately from the
street and be locked off from the rest of the building and the rest of the property.
Downstairs at the moment my son uses that as a music studio so he can enter
from the courtyard but he often enters from the street and his mates come over
from the street and hang out with him. Sometimes we don't even know they've
been there until we look at the fridge in the morning and half the food's gone.
So we love the courtyard, we love that you're surrounded by the greenery but
we also love that you can hear the sounds of the suburb surrounding it.
We've got but uh the crazy paving continues out there so that gives
it a kind of a rustic informal feel and we've got a mixture of plants in gardens
but also in pots that we can sort of move around should we need to.
So generally the internal material palette is to use or we use robust and external looking
materials with the intention of making the place feel quite informal and relaxed and grounded and
to make the new parts feel outside of the rooms of the existing Victorian.
So some of the materials we used are recycled red brick, there's crazy paving on the floors,
along with concrete, there's lots of timber cladding that you'd normally use outside
has been used insides, there stainless steel bench tops and there's lots of steel joinery.
Yeah, everyone loves the green tiling the idea was just that it blended out
into the greenery of the courtyard, but it seems to work well with the existing brick
and a lot of the brass tap wear we've used, it gives it a kind of a sort of a lush feel.
So I wanted the house to feel like a sanctuary but I still want it to feel like we're connected
to Fitzroy, so the way we've approached it is we've created a lot of large windows which give
us options, to greenery, to neighbouring buildings, to views across rooftops,
back to our own building and then if things change, which can happen. Neighbours can move out,
trees can be knocked down and walls can be built, so views can can change. So we've
created lots of large windows with devices like shading blinds, timber screens, metal screens,
curtains, drapes, we've got some hanging planters, all things that help us with
managing the privacy but still give us those views out and make us feel connected to Fitzroy.
fitro